More than 150 teaching jobs in Cork are vacant
Teachers across the country took to the picket lines last week over the failure of the government to negotiate a new public sector pay deal amid rising costs of living.
More than 160 teaching jobs in Cork schools are unfilled, Department of Education figures show.
Research shows that the shortage is particularly acute in urban areas, which is likely to do with these areas having a higher cost of living.
A total of 162.8 posts in Cork primary and secondary schools are not being utilised, despite funding being there for the schools to hire teachers.
The latest government data shows Cork is second only to Dublin in terms of teacher shortages, and has almost double the amount of unfilled posts as the next highest county on the list – Kildare – while Galway and Meath make up the remainder of the top ten.
Aaron Wolfe, principal of Coláiste Éamann Rís in Cork city, told that the school was experiencing an “absolutely huge" teacher shortage. "It's a big problem," he said.
It comes as teachers across the country took to the picket lines last week over the failure of the government to negotiate a new public sector pay deal amid rising costs of living.
Siobhan O’Donovan, an English teacher and ASTI representative at Patrician Academy in Mallow, said: “I see young teachers coming in and within a year or two sometimes, they get a bit deflated."
Ms O’Donovan added: “Sometimes they get that look on their face – they've spent at least four years in college – they are thinking 'Yes I love the job, but I'm still living at home. I can't afford to rent, where's my future?’”
She added: “Nobody goes into teaching to make money… but the expectation was always there that you could live on a teacher's salary.
“I genuinely mean it, that is no longer there, once you factor in the facts of life: childcare, petrol to get you to work, your mortgage, the cost of food.”
Principal of Glasheen Girls NS Maeve Heaphy, who was also protesting last week, said: “The lack of respect is the big part for me.
“I have a lot of young staff coming to me, saying I’m trying to get a mortgage and I can’t. Some of them aren’t that ‘young’ either. A lot of them are really finding it hard to get mortgages.”
The recently-published Strategic Workforce Planning for Teachers report by UNESCO found that teacher shortages vary substantially, based on location, with urban areas facing more acute pressures than rural, particularly in primary schools.
In urban areas, limited accommodation availability and high housing costs represent a constraint for teacher supply.
Evidence from surveys and interviews conducted in 2025 indicates that teachers working in cities and large towns rated the cost of living as one of the most influential contributors to shortages.
Further evidence from school leaders indicates that housing costs increasingly deter teachers from working in some areas.
In an Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) 2025 survey, 50% of secondary school principals and deputy principals reported that rental costs were deterring teachers from working in their schools, up from 25% in 2022.
Data from the report found that secondary vacancies were highest in maths and Irish subjects, and that these roles were often filled by “out of field” teachers.
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